Video: What is dynamic range?

Dynamic range is the difference between two extremes. In audio, dynamic range represents the ratio between the loudest and softest signal being produced over any given interval. Every day we experience this concept of dynamic range almost constantly across all of our senses. And as humans, we're quite adept at recognizing it: light and dark, hot and cold, hard and soft, and for the purpose of this course, loud and quiet. A sound's amplitude directly correlates with its loudness.

In this first installment of the Foundations of Audio series, author Brian Lee White shows how to improve the sound of a mix with compressors, limiters, gates, de-essers, and other dynamic processors. The course explains the fundamentals of sound waves, and amplitude, explores common compressor controls, and shows how to eliminate unwanted noise using gates and expanders. The course also demonstrates best practices in compression and limiting in a variety of audio applications and covers sculpting the attack and decay of individual notes with transient shapers and applying frequency specific dynamics control with multiband compressors. Exercise files accompany the course and include special Get in the Mix session files.

What is dynamic range?

Dynamic range is the difference between two extremes.In audio, dynamic range represents the ratio between the loudest and softestsignal being produced over any given interval.Every day we experience this concept of dynamic range almost constantlyacross all of our senses.And as humans, we're quite adept at recognizing it:light and dark, hot and cold, hard and soft, and for the purpose of thiscourse, loud and quiet.A sound's amplitude directly correlates with its loudness.

But what is loud? What is quiet?Is a concert loud? Is a library quiet? That depends.But I can assure you, if you walked out of a library and into a rock concert,you would have a pretty good idea of the difference in loudness between the two spaces.Loudness in our minds is not finite.It's all about perception.The key thing to understand is that we need both ends of the spectrum to fullyevaluate what's loud and what's quiet.The distance between these extremes is what we call dynamic range.

For example, if you heard a book fall off a desk in a library, it would startle you.This is because the difference between the sound of the book falling in alibrary versus the library's quiet environment is fairly extreme.This same effect is used by movie sound designers.Ever jump out of your seat from a loud explosion?At its limits, the human ear can experience roughly 120 dBs of dynamic range,with 0 dB being imperceptible and 120 reaching the threshold of pain,although much of our day-to-day experience of dynamic range exists in amuch narrower space.

For example, a modern pop mix may only have around 8 to 10 dB of dynamic rangebetween the peak and average amplitude values over the entire song,while a modern film may have around 20 dBs of peak-to-average dynamic range,which is why you would be more likely to jump out of your seat at a movietheater during a loud explosion than you would be listening to a song in your car.Let's listen to some examples.This first example has a wide dynamic range.Imagine a quiet park interrupted by car horns and sirens.

As a side note, 16-bit recording systems offer 96 dBs of dynamic range.In comparison, 24-bit recording offers a much wider range of 144 dBs, exceedingthe range of human perception, which is generally accepted to be around 120 dBs.Because of this, 24-bit recordings can accommodate a wider range of amplitudevalues before digital clipping.Now that we understand the basic concept of dynamic range, we can begin toharness the power of dynamics processors to control it.

Just as we can measure the change in perceived loudness of quiet dialogue in afilm to a loud bomb-explosion sound effect,we can also measure the dynamics over shorter periods of time, like the volumedifferences in phrases of a vocal track from line to line or the amplitude curveof the crack of a single snare hit.And since we can measure these dynamic range relationships, we can change themif they aren't working for us.We'll do just that using dynamics processors.

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Q: This course was updated on 1/10/2014. What changed?

A: The Get in the Mix videos have been
updated to the most recent version of Pro Tools. Also, the course now
includes free Get in the Mix sessions for two more DAWs: Logic Pro X and Pro
Tools 11.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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